Friday was once again a Fenland Gamers club night.
I got a chance to play Outlive with its expansion for the first time in about five long years.
When I last played Outlive in 2018 the expansion was a mere twinkle in the games designers eyes.
Marcin got me picking the expansion up for him at UKGE this year for him. So I most definitely hadn’t played the game with the expansion.
I was keen to play the game again.
It was great playing this post apocalyptic worker placement game after such a long time.
I came last, so not even first loser. But I did some cool stuff. I had fun.
After a morning taking Mum to get her new glasses adjusted, and installing a new Wi-Fi router (could have done without that small expense) I picked up a handy game or two to play with Dave as I left the house to meet him.
Which is why we ended up continuing the trend started by Outlive the evening before by playing Eminent Domain.
Eminent Domain is another game that last got played in 2018.
I do like Eminent Domain. But this deckbuilder does not get nearly as much play as it deserves, as the gap between plays proves.
We did waste a bit of time setting up. Working out what cards were what. And for me refreshing my failing memory with the rules, as Dave playing the game for the first time learnt them. But that’s the drawback of picking up a game that I hadn’t played in a long long time.
After narrowly losing to Dave I introduced him to the roll and write genre with Trek 12: Himalaya.
This is a fun introductory roll and write I think with just enough challenge to keep more experienced players engaged.
I did managed to summit our first mountain, narrowly failed the second mountain by 2 points, and was not close on the third and final mountain.
With me getting points for the first two mountains, and Dave claiming points for the third. We ended the expedition a draw.
However I had other reasons for introducing Dave to roll and writes. The next ones I want to play with him are Three Sisters and Motor City. Yep we will be going from the safe paddling pool where Dave has just dipped his toes in the water to dropping him in the deep end!
Last night was once again a Fenland Gamers club night.
Last night numbers were slightly down. But we had enough for a couple of tables. One table played The Warriors board game. Which if you are under a certain age have no idea it’s based on a 1970s movie. Mind you Jonathan had no idea it was a movie either. I think the only person playing it familiar with the source material was Dave. I’d be interested in giving it a try. I do like the movie.
Our table got to play the latest hotness, the sequel to Stonemaier Games second biggest selling game (it was the top until Wingspan came out) Scythe, Expeditions.
Every copy of Expeditions has an achievements sheet included. One side are the achievements to record names against. The other side is an extract from a captains journal (see below).
It turns out thanks to a really observant individual on the games Facebook group that there are different versions of this journal page. In less than 24 hours the group has managed to identify at least 17 different ones (it may be all of them now).
It’s suspected there are 20 different journal pages. Jamey did say there was a hint to the number in the photo. Which I have zoomed in on below. Which seems to confirm the number 20.
What’s even cooler is that Jamey signed 20 of these sheets and they were randomly placed in copies of the game!
My copy of Expeditions was the iron clad edition, with the add-on metal coins. The difference between the iron clad edition and the standard are the amazing metal mechs instead of plastic ones.
The production of the game is up to the usual gold standard set by Stonemaier Games. The setup of the game is made super easy by the games insert. With a great storage tray that holds the coins, worker meeples, and map tokens. Thus can be taken straight out of the box and used on the table.
The art is just out of this world. Jakub Rozalski is just amazing. I love the whole world he has built with it. That 1920’s alternative history with the mechs. Love it.
Story wise Expeditions takes place after the events in Scythe and the Rise of Fenris expansion. We shift from Europa to “…Siberia, where a massive meteorite crashed near the Tunguska River, awakening ancient corruption.” It’s our job to venture North to investigate this meteorite crash.
There is a darker tone to the plot line and art. I’m trying to think of a way to best describe the theme/tone. I think Scythe meets Cthulhu might best describe it.
There are some Easter eggs within the game. It wouldn’t be a Stonemaier game without them. There are two cards named after other titles in the Stonemaier catalogue (Charterstone and Scythe). Plus Jamey’s two cats feature on a card (see below).
We started off as a five player game, however three quarters of the way through our fifth player had to leave.
This first game took three and a half hours. But at full player count (for the majority of the game), and two players that suffer from analysis paralysis is it any surprise?
Once setup Expeditions is a table hog, and was a very tight fit with five of us round the table.
However the game has a table presence that is made with the large metal mechs.
The base snaps didn’t fit perfectly on one or two of the metal mechs. But I think that might improve over time.
For those thinking this is going to be like Scythe, it is not. There are a couple of similar mechanics, such as not being able to repeat an action twice, the victory track and glory tokens, and there are mechs! This plays completely differently. There is no confrontation/interaction between players apart from blocking another player getting to a space by occupying it yourself.
I love how the card titles help tell the story of the game. But having multi use cards that you have to decide when to stop using them for their ability and turn them into say an upgrade for the mech, a solved mission or meld a piece of meteorite is a cool.
There is also having to know when to do a refresh action to move cards from your activated area back to your hand. It’s a tough decision. It’s all you do on a turn. But the payoff is getting a powerful next turn. Although I did find it more useful doing the refresh action on a tile instead once one was revealed.
Being able to utilise not only your Commander and their animal companions abilities, but also your mechs is really important. I played Olga with Changa, naturally. I also had the highlander mech which meant I could put gained cards straight into my hand.
If Marcin hadn’t triggered the end of the game I would have on my next turn. Marcin also went on to win as well. But the point difference between us was from him having vanquished more corruption than me.
I had a blast playing Expeditions and can’t wait to play it again. I think this will be finding a place in my top 10 games.
After the failed attempt to have a club night last week. Which would have been the first post UKGE we got back on track by having one this week.
I took along my now pimped out copy of Dune Imperium in it’s new home of the Deluxe Upgrade box. Along with After Us, War of the Ring the card game (with the four promo cards I purchased at this years UKGE), and Cat in the Box. Plus the limited edition, super rare black edition of the club tee. There are only three of these and all spoken for.
Despite only five people actually responding to the event on the clubs discord server. We actually had twelve turn up.
This meant we split up into three gaming tables of four players on each.
Luckily there were three others willing to play Dune Imperium.
The Dune Imperium Deluxe Upgrade kit (finally arrived earlier in the week)
One of them was new to the game so I limited our game to just the core and Rise of Ix expansion. Having Immortality in the mix as well would have been too much.
Who had which leader?
Viscount Hundro Moritani – me
Prince Rhombur Vernius – Julie
Princess Yuna Moritani – Dave
The Beast Glossu Rabban – new player
I bet me not playing Yuna surprised you. It surprised me too. But then Dave had already chosen her. So I had very little choice in the matter.
I liked Hundro a lot. Especially his starting bonus of getting an Intrigue card.
For most of the game I was just behind the leaders on the victory points. I was in the mix and just needed a good round to leap frog into the lead. Ideally timed to trigger the end game.
Early on I picked up an end game scoring intrigue card that rewarded me for being having three or more influence on the faction tracks. Followed by taking one off Julie that gave me a point for having more than ten solari. Almost straight away after taking that card off her I drew another with the same condition on it.
I had potentially four victory points in those three intrigue cards at the end of the game.
Our game went the full ten rounds.
I didn’t win a single combat. Most of them I didn’t even participate in.
In the later rounds I made sure I couldn’t lose the two alliances I had. In this game losing one to another player is a massive point swing.
In the last round I was able to pick up a Spice Must Flow card to gain a much needed victory point. It helped that the cost was reduced by three with a card I had.
After the dust had settled and points from tech tiles and intrigue cards added I won with twelve points.
It’s felt like an age since I last did any board gaming.
With the car woes not yet resolved I was glad I was able to arrange for a lift home from the community centre. It meant I could hop off the college bus on the way home, walk to the community centre, and play some games.
The gaming drought was about to be over.
Jonathan had bought along Letters from Whitechapel. A Game I last played with Jonathan back in 2016. Back then it was a three player game with me taking on the role of the infamous serial killer Jack the Ripper. In that game Jack managed to avoid capture, carry out his crimes, and disappear into the night, never to be caught. In other words I won, Jonathan and Debbie lost.
Last night Dave was to be Jack the Ripper whilst Diego, Jonathan, Charlene, and myself would be the boys in blue trying to stop Jack.
The first game was over during the first night with Jack running out of time to get back to his hideout.
It was a learning game, and refresher. So can we really count it as Dave was learning how to play, and be Jack at the same time?
Our second game went to the third night with Jack being arrested by me. But he had already claimed four victims by this point.
Charlene’s crime board had worked, but sadly it had not been effective enough to save more lives.
But our collective deduction skills had been more mighty than Dave’s tricksy skills.
These were two really fun games.
Good grief I look so old in this photo. When did that happen? Photo copyright Jonathan Warren
A big thank you to Jonathan for the lift home. Without it I wouldn’t have been able to go.
A brief car woes update. I have wheels again.
Green Flag got the car started again, and found the fault to be the battery. So once at the garage I passed on the info. It was lucky it was the that. I was prepared for something more expensive like an alternator (whatever one of them is).
A big thank you to Jonathan for picking me up and dropping me off at the garage. Without him getting the car woes sorted would have been a lot more eventful, and longer. Mainly because of a flaw in my plan that didn’t foresee not getting a loan car while the work was being done.
It started off with an all in game of Dune Imperium.
Thanks to a bit of AP from a player this game took a lot longer than it should.
The game went to the full ten rounds with Dave managing to push his final score to a whooping 14victory points. Very impressive for a first play.
We finally left the WSM Community Centre just before 11pm!
Still I really love Dune Imperium with both expansions. I must get the deluxe expansion. But the thing putting me off is the upgraded dreadnoughts are not available outside the US.
Saturday saw the regular D&D session happening. But the post mortem post will go into that. So I’ll spare you the pain here of me waffling on about it.
Sunday afternoon was a six player all in game of Scythe.
I foolishly forgot to make notes of who played what faction with which player board.
Republic of Polania (White) – Archie
Saxony Empire (Black) – Marcin
Nordic Kingdoms (Dark Blue) – Claire
Rusviet Union (Red) – Me (I had the agriculture board)
Vesna (Light Blue) – Rise of Fenris – Dave
Fenris (Orange) – Rise of Fenris – Charlene
For this game I used the War objective track, along with the modular board. The resolution tile for this game was Mission Possible. The two wind gambit cards thus game were Reap and War Correspondent.
I could have made the game more aggressive with the rivals module but decided that that, and the mech and tech modules were a module too far for the two noobs, and two partial noob players.
I had two great objectives for this aggression biased game. Sadly I completed neither.
The game was a blast.
I love just how much variability this game has meaning no two games are the same.
At six players we were in danger of running out of time before the community centre closed.
But still that was to be expected.
Not many games played over the weekend. But three great big games were.
Just a brief post to share which games I played this weekend.
Friday was club for Fenland Gamers and I got to not only meet Dave and his partner Clack. But also got to play a couple of games with them.
I had a blast introducing them to Libertalia Winds of Galecrest and Survive Escape from Atlantis.
Libertalia was a four player game that saw the first two days with three of us playing the same cards. But more worrying for Clank was we played the same cards for the whole of that first voyage. No one wants to be on the same wavelength as me! That way leads to madness.
I did manage to scrape the win by a point, and introduced Dave and Clank to the name “first loser” for the runner up/second place. Jeff I will forever be grateful that you introduced me to that name.
Survive for such a mean game is so much fun for everyone playing. But I guess that does depend on whose playing to some extent.
All I know about our game Friday night was we had great fun playing the game. What’s more I some how managed to win! That’s back to back victories for me playing either of the Survive games. I’d like to claim it was due to skill but considering I don’t have a clue about the value of which survivors I get to safety it’s pure luck.
Saturday illness human and canine took out two of the three of our D&D group that could make the planned session.
So Luke and I met up, grabbed a burger (double quarter pounder with cheese, and cheesy chips), before playing Red Rising.
I really do like Red Rising and the choices you have to make during the game. How I ever thought this wasn’t for me I don’t know.
In our two games that we played (we both won one a piece) I needed a red card to trigger the end game bonus on one of my cards. Did any come up during either game? Not one. Between games I had to check the deck to make sure there was some there. Luckily I had a card that allowed during the end of the game allowed you to choose a colour.
I did use some new functionality within the bgstat app that is in beta testing and that is score sheets.
For some of the games in bgstat with the score sheets functionality enabled when recording a game play or viewing one you will see the little score sheet icon (see magnified bit in the image above).
Click on that icon and you are taken to the score sheet for the game, where you can enter or view the score sheet for that play.
I really liked how the score sheet worked for Red Rising. This is really cool. If they end up charging me to use this in the future when it’s ready for prime time (which it seems it is) I’d happily pay for it.
Bgstat just gets better and better.
Right got to end this post, plan next weekends gaming (hoping to get Doom to the table) and rearrange D&D.
I know my usual posting schedule has once again gone out the window.
Despite having had a half term to recharge the batteries. This past week I’ve been particularly tired in the evenings. Often falling asleep whilst watching something.
I’m not sure folks appreciate how draining the day can be. Especially when you are still adjusting.
However yesterday was the end of the week and once again the fortnightly Fenland Gamers Friday game night.
Which means I go straight from work to where we meet up and play some games. Well that’s the new routine for club night considering the time I finish on a Friday, and it’s on the way home.
Plus it means I get there early, and have time to get something to eat before the majority arrive. I also get to set up the tables ready for some gaming.
Last night I got to play a four player game of Portal.
I’d been wanting to play the game with more than two players.
Our game was shorter than I expected and not as cut throat. But I put that down to one of our players not being a “gamer” and not really paying attention to what was going on. More importantly putting all their eggs into one basket so to speak by having both of their test subjects in the same test chamber. Which opened them up to Ben placing a turret in that chamber and ending the game. At that point in time Ben had the most slices of cake out on the laboratory. Giving him the win.
The second game of the evening saw Ben grab his second win of the evening when he won Alien Frontiers.
The latest edition to the collection, Murder of Crows was my final game of the evening.
The game had only arrived the day before. So naturally I hadn’t had time to read the brief rulebook.
So as I shuffled the cards Ben quickly read the rulebook, and was first player. After all first player was meant to be the most shady looking person!
Murder of Crows is a nice light take that card game, that plays in less than thirty minutes.
It definitely has a spot in the roster of filler games in my collection.
A week into the new job and already I’m seeing a difference in what I can do in my spare time.
Finally I made a Friday Night gaming session in 2023. I know it’s only two that I missed but still that number would have gone up. In fact I don’t think I would have got any of this weekends gaming (apart from maybe todays) done if still in my old job.
My first game of the evening was Survive: Space Attack!
Somehow I managed to win the game. It wasn’t by design.
I don’t look at the values of the survivors at the start, or care which one gets placed where. During my turn if I get to place a monster/alien I combine the rules “shits and giggles” and “rule of cool” for placing it. I have no plan.
And yet I won this time. Don’t figure.
We followed up my victory with a game of Long Shot: the Dice Game.
I really do prefer this to Camel Up! for my racing, placing a bet, style game.
With four players the game has its backwards and forwards as everyone tries to manipulate the race. For a longtime I thought my two horses were going to take the top two spots, but in the end Colin and Jonathan managed to out manoeuvre me and get their horses into those spots instead, leaving me with a third place finish only.
Jonathan like his horse romped home with the win.
After nearly a two month hiatus our D&D group finally got back round the table on Saturday afternoon. But I’m not going to write about that in this post. You’ll get to read all about it in the post mortem.
This afternoon (Sunday) saw Julie and me meet up to play a game or two.
We started out with a learning game of Mariposas. Yeah the game by the Elizabeth Hargrave.
I think Mariposas was always going to suffer from what I can best describe as “second album syndrome” after having such a big hit with Wingspan.
What I like about Hargrave is her using less common themes for her games. Mariposas is about butterflies and their migration. I think her next game is based on some Russian experiment where they were breeding foxes to domesticate them. Themes that have a very broad appeal.
I have to say I was surprised how light Mariposas was. It felt very gateway like.
The game also played very quickly. It takes place over three seasons (aka rounds). You start off taking only four actions on the first round, five on the second, and finally six on the third and final one.
Add in end of round objectives, a bit of set collection, and you have a pleasant gaming experience.
At under £30 for a copy it’s not bad value.
Our next game was a first play of Motor City.
Once you get over the iconography this game feels very different to Three Sisters. Its definitely more puzzley and a lot less combotastic.
I liked the game a lot, and needs unpacking in-depth in another post after more games have been played.
We finished off the afternoons gaming with a game of the flip and write Silver and Gold.
It’s been a great weekend of gaming. Something I’ve not had in a long time.
Last night was the first and only session of the Christmas gaming program for Fenland Gamers that I could attend this year.
Traditionally there are three gaming sessions organised. However work rotas meant I had shifts during two of them. It was just luck that I was on an early yesterday and thus able to attend.
It was really great to be seeing friends again and playing games with them.
After some catching up, Katie, Jeff, and myself played Dune Imperium ALL IN!
By that I mean not only was it the core game and the first expansion Rise of Ix. But also the second and latest expansion Immortality.
Wow is this a table hog now.
For me Dune Imperium is like Istanbul. A great core game, that gets better with the expansions.
Granted when teaching to new players things might look daunting. But after a couple of turns, or just the first round, everything clicks into place.
I love what Immortality brings to the game. More decisions to make, more options.
In our game it was looking like Jeff might trigger the end of the game on the ninth round. I had decided not to go for one of my intrigue cards end game scoring conditions as I just didn’t think I would get a chance to complete it.
I had decided instead to try and get as close as I could to ten points and hope that my end game intrigue cards would be enough to snatch victory away from Jeff.
In the end after some beautiful minding it, I managed to grab three victory points to trigger the end of the game, and get two more from end game intrigue cards.
But that moment was all down to stealing an alliance token from Katie, and grabbing a couple of others by winning the combat, and doing research that enabled me to progress up faction alliance tracks.
It was not an outcome I had planned on that turn. But as I got closer to triggering the end of the game, one false move and we’d have gone to another round. Which would have given Jeff a window of opportunity to grab the victory instead. Everything had to be done in the correct order. Luckily I didn’t slip up.
There is still plenty to explore with the Immortality expansion before I talk more about it. But so far after this initial game I love it.
It was great to be gaming again. Tomorrow I’ve spending New Years Eve with Nathan so there will be a game or two there (even though it’s a whistle stop visit).
Now to start putting dates up for the next regular Friday evening gaming sessions.
Friday evening was once again a club night. Attendance was more pre-pandemic numbers than post. Whether that’s due to illness, time of year (it is the busy run up to Christmas) who knows?
Our first game of the evening was the classic, destroyer of relationships, Survive Escape from Atlantis.
This is such a fun game, and a members favourite.
Despite being victimised by the others (it’s so easy to make that claim in this game) I didn’t come last. I only got one survivor to safety but it was enough to put Marcin into last place with his lower scoring two survivors. At the other end of the survivor safety spectrum (more than three getting to safety) Ben managed to pip Colin to the winning line by a single point.
Our second and final game of the evening was Last Will.
Ben was declared the winner of this game. We still had a round to play. However with our hosts wishing to close up we had to finish the game.
The deciding factor in declaring Ben the winner was he needed one more action to trigger the end of the game, whilst the rest of us required more than that.
A fun evening, lots of banter.
Saturday afternoon saw me playing a two player game of Scythe with Charlene.
It was meant to be a three player game but illness meant the third player had to drop out at the last moment.
I was going to use the Automata as a third player. But I need to read the rules on running the Automata first before doing this.
We did use the modular board and that was the best idea of the afternoon.
Additional rules used
After randomly placing the faction markers round the board (all but one go out if using the Fenris factions as well, I removed that remaining faction from those that can be chosen), Charlene and I randomly chose player boards. Despite having the higher board I let Charlene chose first.
This will amaze folks but I did not go with my one of my favourite factions. Instead I gave Vesna a try.
Factions played
After choosing our factions we removed two of the modular boards. That was why using the modular boards was a great decision.
I had previously played Scythe two player with Jeff but that was with the “regular” board. Which isn’t best for a two player game. You can be on opposite sides of the map, never bump into each other.
With the modular board removing two of the boards shrinks the map so you are closer together, and you are more likely going to have to battle it out with the other player for spaces.
The way the map tiles were the Vesna river walk was useless and an early mistake for me. I should have built the tunnel first not the mech. Charlene had an easier time and was able to access more of the map without having to do either!
I liked the resolution tile Deja Vu. It was fun. And how our end game was triggered. If Charlene hadn’t triggered the end of the game this way I would have triggered it on my next go by placing out my sixth objective star.
After the dust settled and money counted, I won.
If I play Scythe two player again it will only be with the modular board.
We finished off the afternoons gaming with a game of Splendor Duel.
I hadn’t played Splendor Duel before, nor had Charlene.
This is a two player only version of Splendor. Yes Splendor can be played two player. But sometimes like 7 Wonders Duel, the two player version gives you the same experience as the original but just takes it to another level.
I really like this as a two player game. Like it’s bigger brother it appears I’m not very good at it. I haven’t won a game of Splendor in a long time. And this two player experience was no exception and continued my losing streak.
I can see this being added to the collection to play with Nathan. Or on the rare occasion I get to play a two player game with Jonathan.
That was my gaming over the last couple of days.
It’s back to work for me now, and gaming when it can be fitted in.
